Baranica Elangovan scripted history on Friday by becoming the first Indian to win a pole vault medal at the Asian Games, clearing 4.15m to claim bronze at the Aichi-Nagoya Games.
The 29-year-old Tamil Nadu athlete shared the bronze medal with Kazakhstan’s Polina Ivanova, who also cleared 4.15m and had an identical countback record. The two athletes could not be separated after recording the same best mark and number of successful attempts.
Baranica opened her campaign with clearances at 3.85m and 4.00m. She needed two attempts to clear 4.15m before moving on to 4.25m, but failed in all three attempts at the height.
The bronze capped a breakthrough year for Baranica, who has twice improved the national record in 2026. She first cleared 4.22m in March before raising the mark to 4.23m in May in Bhubaneswar. The Athletics Federation of India lists 4.23m as the current national record.
A three-time national outdoor champion, Baranica had endured a no-mark at the 2023 Asian Championships but bounced back strongly this season. She cleared the Asian Games qualifying standard of 4.10m to win the Indian Open Jumps Competition in Bengaluru before producing another national-record effort.
She arrived in Nagoya with a personal best of 4.23m after being involved in a close domestic contest with fellow Indian and training partner Sindhushree Ganesha, who was also part of the Asian Games field. Their performances during the season helped raise the standard of Indian women’s pole vault.
Sindhushree, however, failed to register a valid mark in the final and finished without a recorded height.
Baranica’s historic bronze came on a productive day for Indian athletics, with Gulveer Singh also winning silver in the men’s 10,000m.
Gulveer clocked 28:29.38 to finish behind Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew and became the first Indian to win two Asian Games medals in the men’s 10,000m, adding to the bronze he won at Hangzhou.
(IANS Inputs)
